Chapter Six Module Two





 

Texture

This has been a lot of hard work and included a huge amount of stitching.  I would have liked to have completed and shown more examples of use of stitching but have found it difficult to get myself sat at my machine.  I think I have been worried about the final piece of stitching and working out how I was going to achieve a good result.  Having said that I am very pleased with how it has turned out.

 

I have been very brave and joined my local branch of the Embroiderer's Guild (having joined the main Guild last year).   I thought I should go to the local branch and at least have some contact with other people who embroider.  I appear to be the only person who is not a hand embroiderer, so the practical sessions are a bit daunting!  We have been asked to make a Christmas tree decoration for the Christmas Tree Festival at a Salisbury church.  I haven't completed mine yet, but have stitched a small silver star in metallic silver ribbon (cable stitch - and yes it does look quite delicate for cable stitch).  I shall applique this onto some red silk and stitch it all up with a red tassel and gold beads.  So below is the work that has taken me three months to do - sorry!

 

Texture Resources (page 87 of Module 2)

Here are a few images of textural pictures, there are many more but could spend all day putting these on the blog.  I particularly like the bark images, the dried sunflowers and the rose.  I have added words to describe their texture on the pictures themselves.

 



papery, flaky, peeling, bovine, smooth, antler and metallic

 

rough, ancient, craggy, dry, succulent, smooth, rubbery, round, knobbly

 

 

papery, tissue like, scented, soft, delicate, feathery, spiky, tough

 

rubbery, elegant, rough, bull dog teeth, octopus, tendrils and sharp

 

 



rough, dry, pliable, lacy, fluffy and springy



 

 

dry, papery, crispy, crumbly, smooth,

 

 

Bridget Riley and Visual Texture (page 91 of Module 2)

 

Attempting to create an illusion of a 3D image was a lot more difficult than I expected.  I did understand the principals and the need to plan and therefore stitch carefully in order to achieve the effect.  However, after 2 attempts I wasn't very good at it, although I could see that after the second attempt I had got a little closer. I fully intended to have a third attempt after finishing this chapter but had lost the motivation.

Image of Bridget Riley's 'Current' 1964

First attempt at creating a 3D image

 

A second attempt at recreating 3D image with black thread and white felt, using Bridget Riley's 'Current' (1964) as a resource.

 

Experiments with Stitching Textures (page 92 of Module 2)

 

Below are some examples:

Autumn leaves first example stitched on orange felt using variegated colours, orange, gold, brown and green.  Free machine embroidery using overstitched layers of zig zag in different lengths and widths of stitch.  The second sample uses the same colours as the first but using overstitched layers of granite stitch in variety of sizing. 

 

A Cactus - taken from a picture from my resource gallery.  It is a smooth cactus so I used free machine embroidery and cable stitch.  Calico with same for stabiliser.  A more prickly cactus would require different stitching possibly feather stitch or just draw the prickle and machine straight stitch over.





Alium flower head - stitched on black felt.  Free machine embroidery using purple and pinks with metallic thread in the bobbin.  The needle thread tension was tightened in order to bring up some of the metallic thread in the bobbin case.  I used straight stitch sewn in many individual star shapes, just using the needle as a pencil and drawing over the black felt.



 

 

Mark Making to Create Visual Texture (page 93 of Module 2)

Although I tried to work quickly without thinking it was a little tricky, particularly trying to capture the shape of smell of a red rose!  Results below!

 

These two images are of a cacoon of vine leaves and scrunching through frost.  All make with black charcoal.  The scrunch of the frost is made with a bottle cleaning brush.

 

 

The marks were made with black charcoal and stitched on calico with the same for a stabiliser.  Using free embroidery I stitched zig zag vermicelli with a black metallic thread, and then overstitched with an automatic pattern vermicelli style.  The central red square was overstiched in red and an automatic pattern.  I thought of the red square at the last minute and represents a trapped person.

 

 

Using black charcoal to make the marks, I stitched the shapes onto a piece of deep pink felt (white felt for stabiliser) using a thick silky piece of thread, in cable stitch.  I hoped to capture the idea of scent by using swirls of stitches.

 

 

To make the marks I used a black charcoal pencil on cartridge paper.  The stitching is on white felt using the same as a stabiliser.  I used free embroidery beginning with a green whip stitch to create a feeling of coolness and flow of air.  For some reason I used a purple zig zag vermicelli over the green stitching, though I don't know why, because it hasn't added anything to it.

 

Creating Texture with Paper and Glue (page 93 of Module 2)

I took this picture of tree bark at Savernack Forest near Marlborough Wiltshire on a very wet Wednesday morning and used this as a source for creating texture with fabric and stitch.

 

Original photo of tree bark (my own photo)

 

The image below shows how I built up layers of tissue with PVA to try to mould. the tissue to represent the photograph of bark.  I found the tissue difficult to mould as it kept breaking up and dissolving into nothing.  The size of the tissue model is A4.





Original photo of tree bark with tissue model.

After drying out the tissue was then painted with acrylic paint.  I began to realise that the A4 size would be too large to stitch so decided to take a scan of the model and reduce it to A5. 

Painted tissue

 

 



scanned image of tissue model reduced to A5 size with altered colour contrast.



Creating Texture with fabrics and Stitch (page 95 of module 2)


Selection of threads I have finally chosen.  They mainly consist of crewel embroidery wool with some embroidery silk and cotton.  I have found crewel embroidery thread very satisfying to work with.

 Stitching Texture on the base fabric (page 97 of module 2) and Stitching High Relief areas (page 99 of module 2).
I tacked an area the size of the scanned A5 image that I have worked from onto a piece of black felt.  Using stitch and tear I traced around some of the shapes on the scanned image.  As I had planned to use cable stitch and free embroidery I marked these areas from the back of the felt with a white thread.


 Base piece of felt with low relief areas stitched in cable stitch, the white stitching marking the outline of the high relief areas can be seen also.  Finished piece of work below.

 

 

 

 

Finished piece of work.  I began to realise that I still had too large an area to stitch so decided to limit the high relief pieces to six pieces of stitched black felt.  These were stitched on over the marked areas by hand.  The stitches used were chiefly cable stitch using free machine embroidery with straight stitch and some zig zag.  I also used some cable stitched granite stitch continuing to use thicker thread in the bobbin, with some conventional granite stitch on top using a 40 thread thickness.  I decided against using Kunin felt and a heat gun until I had experimented more and felt confident I wasn't going to burn away all my hard work. 

 

Although this chapter has been hard work in all sorts of ways, I am very pleased with how it has turned out.  When I first thought about it all I thought I was going to create a very natural looking representation of the bark and collected threads of a naturalistic colour.  In the event it has turned out very different to how I envisaged, maybe David Hockney has had a slight influence.

Have had to tear myself away from the TV and the Olympics to put Chapter Five on the blog. Have been absolutely addicted to it all. The TV has been burning away almost 24 hours a day and not much sewing has been going on! Luckily I had completed most of the tassel before the sport began but have been very lazy in gathering everything up together etc. Wish we had applied for tickets now especially the cycling - amazing!

As I was going to be a couch potato for a couple of weeks, went out and about to some gardens and the village flower show. Managed to take yet another photo of an urn, (I think I'm turning into an urn nerd) and a beautiful dahlia which won a prize at the flower show (not mine I hasten to add).The thing with urns is that they are always just in the right place and beautifully composed.




Majestic Urn -Taken at Hinton Ampner. The thistles will look great when they come out and red brick walls are always lovely. I like the silvery tone of the urn and thistles contrasted against the red of the brick wall.













Textured Tassel

Page 72 of Module 2

I chose this image from my stash of pictures as it reminds me of Grinling Gibbons style of work and is an image I had hoped to use at some time and will probably use again.  I love the way the flowers begin to emerge and cascade from the enfolding leaves (don't know what these are called).  It seems voluptuous and graceful at the same time.  The dew drops on the ends of the petals/leaves are beautiful.



This is my chosen image for creating a textured tassel



Creating the tassel top shape

Page 74 of Module 2



Drawing from original image. 



Different shapes taken from the full drawing of my chosen image.  I decided to work with the piece that has a cross on it as my chosen shape.  This is a piece taken from the shape of the full flower in the original picture and initial drawing. I tried the second drawing along but this did not work very well.





Final five sided drawing for mock up using the chosen shape above.



Mock up of the tassel

Page 78 of Module 2

After putting together just three shapes to the tassel top, I decided that it was not wide enough so opted for a five shaped piece.



Three shaped mock up



 

Five shaped mock up with skirt.  The top is now wider at the bottom



 

Complete final mock up



Experiment

Page 80 of Module 2

These are the experimental automatic patterns and threads which I practised with.

Stitching the tassel top

Page 82 of Module 2

The cable stitching in these shapes incorporates my favourite automatic patterns from the practise piece above.  I began with finer thread in the bobbin layering thicker bobbin thread as I progressed to add texture to the shapes.  I chose a similar top thread colours in case the underside of the tassel top was on view at any time.



Three out of five stitched shapes for my tassel top



 

Reverse side of the stitched tassel shapes .





Putting the tassel together

The skirt

Page 84 of Module 2



A machined cord and paper beads that I made from Val Campbell Harding's ' Edges and Finishes'  There are so many wonderful ideas in this book.





Some cable stitched sari silk for the skirt



Completed Tassel

Page 85 of Module

I have tried to scan the image as best as I could and have taken photos as well.  I couldn't scan the whole of the tassel so have taken scans of various bits.  I think the skirt should have been filled out more.  Having done a five sided tassel top there is room for more filling out from the skirt.  The reason I didn't do more of the skirt was because I thought I didn't want too much and thought it would be more elegant with less, but I can see it needs more and elegance doesn't equate with lusciousness.   It would have been a good idea to have made some more beads and machined some thicker cord but I was concerned the beads would not thread through a thick cord.  However, I loved making the beads and the cord.  On reflection I have been very conservative with the tassel skirt and can see now how I could have incorporated so many other things e.g. shells and feathers and knots. (I see that in Val Campbell Harding's book 'Edges and Finishes' she recommends a book on knots.)  However, I do love my tassel top and it is everything I wanted it to be which is rich and voluptuous.  (I also forgot to sew some glass beads on to it to represent the dew drops!!! (Annoyed with myself).

This has been another really enjoyable chapter with so many ideas to carry forward and incorporate into other chapters.  I very much like going through the whole design process and discovering that one doesn't have to faithfully produce an image but that it acts as a springboard for a whole range of ideas and journeys onto different paths.



Module Two - Chapter Four

Hi there, here I am again two months later after the last chapter. It does seem to take about 2 months for me to get through a chapter, so I'm sure I'm getting behind. I know we all lead busy lives but it is difficult to sit down and spend a whole morning on something. A lot of bunting has been sewn since the last chapter not to mention creating a group of scarecrows for the village Jubilee celebrations last weekend. The theme was a musical 'icon' from the past 60 years so we thought that 'The Jam' would be a great subject as an offering from our WI so here they are in all there glory.  We had a great deal of fun making these and I think they are hilarious!  As they were placed on the main road through the village I'm surprised we didn't have any car accidents.  Many apologies to them anyway and those of a nervous disposition.   

So enough of them and on with the serious stuff.  Just want to say how much I have enjoyed this chapter but am realising just how much sewing is required and I'm sure it will only get more intense. 

Cable Stitch with Presser Foot on using a variety of threads stitches and fabric; calico, felt and transfer painted fabric.
Page 58 of Module 2

Cable Stitch with presser foot on using a variety of threads, fabrics and stitches

Cable Stitch - Automatic Patterns

Page 60 of Module 2

In the first line of stitching I used a red Perle cotton in the bobbin with a green thread in the needle.

The second line was stitched with 2 different colours of Madeira Lana wool wound onto the bobbin.  I really like this effect.

The third line used the above colours and then a different combination of colours stitched over the top.

In the fourth line I used the same automatic pattern as above but reduced the width and length.  Halfway through the top thread broke and when I restarted I found I was stitching on the right side of the fabric instead of the back but the gold thread showing doesn't matter, it just adds something else.

The fifth line shows the same pattern but reduced further.

The sixth and seventh lines are different automatic patterns using the same double threaded Lana wool.

Experimental cable stitch using free embroidery
Page 60 f Module 2

Cable Stitch with free embroidery

Strips of fabric bondawebbed to a background
Page 61 of Module 2

This was a piece of purple felt with strips of purple quilting cotton bondawebbed to it, then cable stitched using a variety of thread and colours.  Great Fun.

First piece of bondaweb and cable stitching

This was such fun to do.  I used bondaweb to attach some silk scrim and leaf decorations to the calico.  I also used a bit of sparkle in the circles.

Free embroidery cable stitch using strips of bondaweb fabric on calico

Exercise Stitching Cable Stitch in a Grid using different thicker threads to see the effect
Page 62 of Module 2
This was very enjoyable and gave me lots of practise at winding bobbins with thicker thread and to see completely different outcomes according to thickness of thread used.  You will see from the first example how easy it is to completely go wrong by sewing the entire piece from the front and not the back.  However I have ended up with a nicely stitched grid of whips stitch and feather stitch!

Stitching Grid using fine thread - but not cable stitch!

Stitching Grid using medium thickness of thread

Samples 4 & 5 of Grid experiments using very thick thread

Cable Stitching a Design Photo and Drawing

Page 63 of Module 2

Cable Stitching a Design

Page 64 of Module 2

I have had better success with transfer paints, not sure why.  Anyway I had this small piece of lovely green transfer painted fabric and thought this would look good with the gold/sandy colouring of the seed head.  I traced the design from my drawing on to Stitch and Tear and cable stitched the outline of the image.  I then cable stitched all the other areas using the already stitched outline as a guide.  So I was actually working on the back of the fabric throughout.  Goodness knows how this was going to turn out.  I was absolutely delighted with the result even though I got some of the stabiliser caught up around the front of the work and had to cut it out carefully.  I enjoyed using different thickness of thread and colour matches to try to get the papery feel of the seed head. 

Cable Stitching the Design

Cable Stitching the Background of a Design

Page 65 of Module 2

I chose purple, green, orange and red to begin with and then thought the colours a bit boring, so I changed to a pale blue/grey colour which reminded me of the concentric circles of a smooth pebble.  I added a bit of glitz and then thought of a star fish shape to add to the middle.  I think all the colours work well and complement the colour of the fabric.

Using the stitches from Chapter Three and Chapter Four

Page 66 of Module 2

Using all the stitches from Chapter 3 and 4 - drawing for sewing the first piece of stitching

Using the stitches from Chapter 3 and 4 (first piece)

I spent a long time thinking about the colours to use.  Should I keep them true or experiment.  I decided to stay true to the photograph as the orange pink and purple colours added vibrancy to the rather dull background.

I decided to outline the shape of the fuchsia in cable stitch so I drew the design onto Stitch and Tear so as to stitch the outline from the back when I was ready.

The main part of the flower was filled with layers of granite stitch, first in red and then in purple.  The central part of the flower was filled with layers of granite stitch in purple and crimson.  I wanted to achieve a solid fill of colour.  The upper part of the flower was stitched in feather stitch with a layer of whip stitch in purple.  The whip stitch is hard to see and is quite delicate.  If I had used cable stitch instead of whip stitch I think this would have been too heavy.  I really like the delicacy of the purple whip stitch on top of the granite stitch.  Although in the photo it is much more defined.

I was quite pleased with the work so far, whilst the colours created a solid effect it still had the delicate feel of a flower.  I wish I had scanned the work before I outlined the image in cable stitch. I used this in order to fulfil the criteria of this section of the chapter but I don’t think it adds anything to the embroidery.  The reason for this is that the thread I used is too thick.  I was seduced by the colour and the feel of the silk and wanted to use it for something but I was in two minds about using it.

I’m not sure why I chose to stitch the stem and left side of the upper flower in orange other than I thought there was too much purple.  It’s OK but should have been blended into the purple.  The stem is also cable stitched.

The colour chosen for the dangly bits is a mistake.  The tone of colour is wrong and I should have been more careful in my colour selection.  At least fuchsias do have an amazing array of contrasting colours.

The vermicelli stitch used in the background did not go very well the main reasons being I forgot to add a more substantial stabiliser and as a result there were tension and puckering issues.  I also find vermicelli stitch a ‘self conscious’ stitch by that I mean that I feel very self conscious trying to fill a large space with nice curvy curves.  I did try to just think of one small area at a time but not very successfully.  Another puzzle is why does one’s brain say stop but the message takes a few seconds longer for one’s foot to come of the foot control!

Using Stitches - A Second Piece

Page 69 of Module 2

Second Piece of Stitching

This final piece I like very much.  Again I spent a long time thinking about the colour scheme.  I wanted to make it less bright and use more subtle colours.  I more of less followed a similar pattern of stitches as the example in the chapter demonstrates.

I used granite stitch in purple and a lovely yellowy green in vermicelli stitch to enhance the background.  Both fuchsias were outlined in cable stitch using a fine wool thread.  I wish I had used something as fine as this for the previous piece.  The main bulk of the flower heads were filled with feather stitch using a lovely dark green top thread and gold/yellow in the bobbin.  I used two layers of feather stitch for this.  I didn't want too solid a feel but one layer of stitching wasn't quite enough.

Both stems and upper flowers were stitched in whip stitch which turned into feather and moss stitch purely because of tension issues.  I especially like the subtle colour scheme which gives a lovely rich brocade feel.  I remembered to use a more substantial stabiliser which gave a more satisfactory result.  I prefer this piece to the previous one but I wish I had used more purple granite stitch over the stem and upper parts of the flowers just to add a little more balance.